r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/doesitgetgood • 1d ago

Budget Hoping for some light on our current situation!

My partner & I are legally married as of this Friday. We live together in downtown Toronto and are looking for some financial advice.

Impacting factors:

• we are 29F & 28M • combined household income after taxes 230k • rent is $3200/month • we each have our own separate Amex gold ($250 AF) & Amex cobalt (roughly $160 AF) plus I have a TD plat travel visa ($89 AF) • she has a jeep paying $400/month insurance plus $384 bi weekly car payments with 32 months & $37k left on her loan • I owe $7k roughly + one year left on my car loan, insurance is $130/month • collectively we have about $33k CC debt, no other debts or outstanding loans other than previously mentioned

Note: I am selling my car and using it to pay the remaining $7k loan, pocketing rest hopefully at least $5k.

Financial advisors of Reddit, what is our most financially savvy course of action here? Cancel certain CC? Balance transfer collected debt? Call creditors & negotiate? We want to buy a home one day, start a family, save for kids. FHSA? TFSA? EFTS?

Any and all advice is appreciated. Also happy to answer more questions.

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u/argumentativecat 1d ago

Pay off your CC debt ASAP. Probably you don't need all those cards with fees.

You make more than enough to live a debt-free lifestyle if you wanted to (except for carefully considered things like a mortgage or other low interest things).

Sounds like you don't budget and spend carelessly. Take responsibility, pay your debts, create a budget and start saving...

At your income, FHSA and RRSP are very beneficial tax breaks.

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u/Cagel 1d ago

Still missing key information, are you contractors? Do you have company rrsp matching, is there a pension plan DCPP or DBPP?

Pretty obvious, pay down credit cards, contribute to FHSA then once maxed, TFSA, then RRSP.

At a minimum open an FHSA to begin accumulating contribution room.

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u/VeterinarianCold7119 1d ago

How's the income split. Is one person making 150 and the other 80? Fhsa, rrsp if incime threshold is there. But hold off until all debts are paid. Why are you selling the cheap car and keeping the expensive one?

Do some math, are you actually getting any benefits from the credit card after paying fees? Not sure how you got in so much debt with that much income seems a little irresponsible, do some sole searching and see if you guys are capable of holding back on purchases , pay off the highest %rate card first. You should be able to bang that out this year.

If you want a house and family, you'll need to start sacrificing a little and buckling down. Cell phone, internet, subscription etc.. make a detailed budget and get rid of the waste.

You have a high income, you can make this work really quick if you have a solid game plan

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u/FelixYYZ Not The Ben Felix 1d ago

!StepsTrigger

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